I could have sworn I read someone talking about this game before on here, but a search shows the only reference is to a sale in the Omnibus thread, so...

FTL is an indie game released last year after a successful kickstarter campaign. The two guys who created the game hoped to raise $10,000, and ended up with over $200,000; plenty to start their own company and work on new games after the success of FTL. The game is available on Steam for $10.

FTL is a roguelike, top-down, sci-fi game. The concept and graphics are simple: you are piloting a ship through 8 sectors, trying to bring key intelligence about a rebel assault back to the Federation you're a part of. Each sector is made up of perhaps 20 locations you can visit, and each location can have different events that occur there. Being a roguelike game, the sectors and encounters are randomized in each game, and death is permanent (if you lose, you must restart on a new ship with a new crew). You start out with the basic, jack-of-all-trades human-operated ship, but can unlock different human ships, different model types, and different races' ships by completing quests or getting achievements across your games. Some achievements are simple (such as "Reach sector 5" or "Beat the game on Easy"), while others are very much based on luck (one of the rock cruiser's achievements requires not only planning, but a lot of luck to get the series of events needed, to the point where some players complain that they've yet to receive the achievement even after dozens of games).

The game is pretty balanced, in that each ship is neither over or under powered, but specialized. For example, the stealth cruiser starts out with cloaking systems, but no shields; that means you might be able to avoid some hits, but when they get through, it hurts! Or you have the Mantis cruisers, which specialize in boarding; you start with weak ship weapons, but a teleporter allows your Mantis crew to board the enemy ships and tear them apart from within. Or a slug cruiser, which lets you use a special anti-bio beam to target the enemy crew remotely. I believe there are some 18 or so different ships.

While the game might be balanced, the randomness of the encounters can be cringe-worthy. If you get a series of unlucky encounters, even the best strategy could fail. On the other hand, even with great luck you'll lose without a strategy. Some ships are very dependent on luck, especially at the beginning of the game, where a lack of scrap (the currency) or upgrades could spell death within the first sector or two. Even if you have scrap, you might not find a store; even if you find a store, it might not sell what you need.

I've played 5 playthroughs so far, and finally won for the first time on the last one. A "fast" game would likely be an hour or so; I think my longest was 2 and a half hours (with about 30 minutes of that being "skill farming;" your crew members can train skills like piloting or weapons systems to give boosts to your ship). The game culminates in a three-part boss fight; and again, RNG can kill you if you show up without several different weapons/systems. In one of my (failed) games, I got to the end boss without a drone system and without missiles. I couldn't do enough damage to hurt the boss ship through its shields, and I didn't have enough ways to mitigate incoming damage... despite being a "lucky" run up to the end, the end itself stopped me cold.

That said, the game is a LOT of fun. When you have a good strategy come together, it's fun to run circles around the AI. If you've got $10 to spare, it's not a bad game to play.

I got this game yesterday (was a gift, thanks!) and the couple runs I tried were fun. I guess it's a lot of RNG but I'm trying to establish some sort of strategy -- the first game I explored a little bit and then ran out of fuel. The second game I did a more direct run through each sector and was under-equipped for the end sections (blown up right before entering the last sector).

Also, I have a bad habit of turning off my weapon systems mid-fight while they're recharging

There are many, many different strategies, but none of them is going to be perfect for all situations. A big part of the game is counting your losses (and an even bigger part is figuring out when to do so).

There are many, many different strategies, but none of them is going to be perfect for all situations.

That said, there are some pretty good pieces of advice in most cases.

1. Upgrade your shield system ASAP. When can you run with 2 shields at a time, you'll be safe from almost all fights through sector 3. 2. Get a teleporter - the sooner, the better (if you have the crew for it). It's practically mandatory to win the final boss fight, and if you can raid ships you'll notice a significant uptick in your scrap amount. 3. You "need" (again, practically mandatory) either the stealth system or a drone system + defense drones for the final battle. I prefer the stealth system for a few reasons - you need some luck to get the drone system and a defense drone schematic, drones are a consumable that can't be used in every fight, and you can get some blue encounter choices out of it. The said, Defense Drone II and a drone retrieval arm is pretty much an I-Win button for the second part of the boss fight, drones can be versatile if you get lucky with schematics, and the stealth system is very expensive to buy (150, if I remember correctly). 4. Load up on fuel whenever you're at a shop. There's nothing worse than running low right as the Rebels are about to catch up.

I'd say these tips are valid for 90% of all my games (though some depend on the ship you're using; you can't buy the Stealth System on the Federation Cruisers for example).

By the way, the most fun I've had so far was using the Slug Cruiser (A). Anti-Bio Beam is an unconventional but devastating way to take out enemies in the first few sectors. I haven't played in a month or so, but I was looking forward to the Rock Cruiser (B). And the "Secret Ship." Both seem like amazing raiding vessels.

My "cheap" remark was tongue-in-cheek but arguably "RNG" as an excuse is cheap. It might be "fair" in that everyone has the same chances for terrible things but a game where there's a 1% chance per move of "Rocks fall, everyone dies" is still cheap. There's no skill there, just a hope that the game doesn't arbitrarily end through no fault of your own.

My "cheap" remark was tongue-in-cheek but arguably "RNG" as an excuse is cheap. It might be "fair" in that everyone has the same chances for terrible things but a game where there's a 1% chance per move of "Rocks fall, everyone dies" is still cheap. There's no skill there, just a hope that the game doesn't arbitrarily end through no fault of your own.

Edited, Jun 11th 2013 12:04pm by Jophiel

Hey man, sometimes life just sucks and you get boarded and slaughtered by a small army of mantis people. Welcome to the real world.

Can you give a specific instance, or general FTL examples, so I can understand better?

Started a game, on the second turn had a ship send in a boarding party that absolutely raped my crew (maybe literally, hard to tell with those tiny sprites). Was 4 vs 3 and they were obviously better fighters than my 0 skill starting humans.

To be clear, aside from rolling my eyes and restarting it wasn't a huge deal and doesn't mean it's a terrible game but I'd classify it as cheap. There wasn't any counter to it or time to skill up my crew's fighting, get more men, invest in anti-personnel drones, etc. Just "Welcome to this system... haha, you lose".

Can you give a specific instance, or general FTL examples, so I can understand better?

Started a game, on the second turn had a ship send in a boarding party that absolutely raped my crew (maybe literally, hard to tell with those tiny sprites). Was 4 vs 3 and they were obviously better fighters than my 0 skill starting humans.

To be clear, aside from rolling my eyes and restarting it wasn't a huge deal and doesn't mean it's a terrible game but I'd classify it as cheap. There wasn't any counter to it or time to skill up my crew's fighting, get more men, invest in anti-personnel drones, etc. Just "Welcome to this system... haha, you lose".

Edited, Jun 11th 2013 12:12pm by Jophiel

Huh, I never experienced anything even close to that cheap. I normally never saw boarding parties until at least the end of the first area.

There are a lot more ship layouts, with different crews, that you can unlock. Maybe the game is designed to go through easy to get access to them before you head to normal?

Started a game, on the second turn had a ship send in a boarding party that absolutely raped my crew (maybe literally, hard to tell with those tiny sprites). Was 4 vs 3 and they were obviously better fighters than my 0 skill starting humans.

Just retreat to the infirmary and vent the entire ship (except the infirmary of course). While fighting in the infirmary skill doesn't matter, you get heal faster than they can damage you. It's a cheap way of turning a cheap situation at your advantage.

Yeah, as long as your oxygen holds out, that's a solid turtling strategy against invaders. In particular, if your Oxygen is still up, putting everyone in the infirmary and then opening all the airlocks will suffocate any units that don't come to fight you.

Of course, if your oxygen does go down, this is harder. Because after you kill everyone, you'll need to run your repair units to the oxygen system, get a small bit of repairing in, and run back. This is going to take a long time. And there's little room for error.

Though if your drone control system is up, and you have repair drones, they'll handle it while your organic units hide.

Really, the game is about using ALL your systems at the opportune time for maximum benefit. Sometimes that means aggressively not using them, interestingly enough.

Can you give a specific instance, or general FTL examples, so I can understand better?

Started a game, on the second turn had a ship send in a boarding party that absolutely raped my crew (maybe literally, hard to tell with those tiny sprites). Was 4 vs 3 and they were obviously better fighters than my 0 skill starting humans.

To be clear, aside from rolling my eyes and restarting it wasn't a huge deal and doesn't mean it's a terrible game but I'd classify it as cheap. There wasn't any counter to it or time to skill up my crew's fighting, get more men, invest in anti-personnel drones, etc. Just "Welcome to this system... haha, you lose".

Can you give a specific instance, or general FTL examples, so I can understand better?

Started a game, on the second turn had a ship send in a boarding party that absolutely raped my crew (maybe literally, hard to tell with those tiny sprites). Was 4 vs 3 and they were obviously better fighters than my 0 skill starting humans.

Ok, that IS terrible luck. I don't think I've ever seen boarding parties of more than 1 in the first sector

Another hint: if you have extra scrap, it can be worth investing in med bay 2, oxygen 2, and blast doors (2). They're only 20-25 each IIRC, and they can really make a huge difference with some of the random events that may otherwise spell instant death. Blast doors, for example, will give you time to suffocate most invaders; med bay 2 gives you enough healing to fight off most invaders (as well as some blue options), and oxygen 2 can save you if you get bad luck in some ion storms or against an enemy's ion cannon.

Edit: Obviously, none of that will help you if that was your second turn. On the plus side, that means you only had invested less than 5 minutes into the game

I tried that but, when it was already 4 on 3, making it 4 on 2 or 4 on 1 just meant the non-med bay guys were plastered before I could rotate them.

Sorry I was unclear, I meant you'd retreat into the medbay with your whole force, and the interlopers would bang up the ship a bit while you were healing, preferably with less oxygen then they'd like. Then you bring your fresh forces in and mop up, with the possibility of a 3rd wave if you're guys are terrible fighters.

And to be clear, Joph, there's probably nothing you could have done with such a ridiculous incursion so early in the game.

What I feel confident saying, though, is that the chances of such a difficult event occurring are extremely low. Part of me wonders if it could have actually been a bug, just because I've never seen anything that difficult early in the game.

Oh, and your oxygen doesn't actually have to hold out if you are in a ship like the zoltan cruiser, upgrading medbay to lvl 2 which is do-able in the first sector will let you keep your guys alive at 0% oxygen, and if the O2 generator is near the medbay you can get it repaired even if the invaders wreck it before they suffocate.